White House spokesman Josh Earnest was asked multiple times during Friday’s daily press briefing about First Lady Michelle Obama and her influence as a campaign surrogate for Hillary Clinton.

“Do you deny the White House is so confident that Secretary Clinton is going to win the election the president can really expend a lot of capital down ballot?” Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke asked. “It seems to me that he’s putting a lot of energy and effort into that, and not just the president but also key surrogates the vice president, the first lady.”

Earnest said that the president was able to use the political capital to support down-ticket Democrats because they share his values and are able to build on the progress of the last eight years.